Harry Potter and the Scepter of Gnosis
by Thrasher Blew
Summary: Bill Weasley's Adventures in Curse Breaking. Harry is present but will be secondary. Updates will be short but frequent. I'll try to update twice a week.


Hi all, this will be a series. Long time reader first time poster. I'll try to get something up at least twice a week. Story is centered on Bill Weasley's adventures in curse-breaking.

Disclaimer: You guys know the drill. I'm not JKR. I don't own the franchise. I've nothing to do with Scholastic or Bloomsbury (unless they're hiring?). This is just for fun with no money being made.

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The door to the tomb moved upwards, grinding against the doorway, the yellow stone left yellow dust even as fog fell out near the ground, as though the breath of some god lurking in the abyss beyond the threshold.

Bill Weasley felt the thrill of katabasis take hold once more, of transgression, entering the forbidden, the unknown.

He set forth not a lumos but a torch, for fear of activating the blood-written runes glittering a rusty copper against his torch, making themselves known along both sides of the narrow passageway. A simple muggle notebook and fountain served as notetaking material, as he noted every arcane symbol. These were not the hieroglyphs of the langue, but the symbolic, the mystical connecting to the depths beyond man, where magic was born. Bill, his hand drawn to the wall, before his eyes had comprehended the sign, ran his fingers along he paths of a mandala. It was a node, a place where the various streams of magic connected to one another, building up the tetragonal ward scheme.

Bill, seeing the signature which the wards understood and expected, began the fine process of mimicing the magical signature, and slipping what could not be mimiced between the blind spots of the wards, hoping to Merlin that he'd not trip whatever curses were to be unleashed.

Moving subtly through the wards, never drawing his wand, focusing on the intent not of an interloper but of an ancient egyptian mage, as months of study and preparation had taught him. He moved from chamber to chamber, subtly feeling out the wards, finding where he could and could not pass, working with the ley lines and looking for the places where the various streams of magic cancelled one another out, where intent was unclear, or where attention was ill placed. He looked for the hot spots which could be temperamental, and the cold spots which might be giving, and snuck through to the lodestone. As any overt spell casting would alert the wards, Bill was forced to work by feel alone, with his amulet for assistance when his senses were not enough. The lines of blood, continuous lines linking the various graphs and diagrams, continued along with him as he traced them node to node.

And he came upon a door. A magically sealed door. And the art of ward-breaking began. Bill set his hand against archway and let a sliver of his magic feel out the detection mechanisms. Like tumblers in a lock, they examined the magic which reached them. Bill allowed his magic to graze them, like a tongue in a kiss, sweeping across the lips, begging entry but not pushing through. Feeling the wards, in place, the deadly fate which they held, he began to delicately mimic what they wanted, subtly manipulating them into acceptance, redirecting their intent. And miraculously, as the he trembled with the exertion of such concentration the door opened.

Well, miraculously, except for the snakes waiting for him on the other side, thousands of them. As one they turned to him, flicking their tongues out and

 _Vipera Evanesca!_

And a few of the snakes vanished, replaced by hundreds more. And then the symbols inscribed on the walls began to glow. The whole tomb seemed to come alive, a sentient being which contained an intruder, a virus to be expunged.

"Bloody fucking hell!" Bill exclaimed as he ran. He knew he'd bollocks'd it up. He knew it and he ran, as the walls began to rearrange themselves, statues began to come alive, and doors began to open revealing.

"Nundus too! Are you kidding me?" Bill exclaimed sending cutting curses at the creatures, running with all he had. _Incendio!_ Fire erupted behind Bill, but the snakes didn't seem to care. The snakes, flaming as they were, looked all the more fearsome. Now, not only would the bite him, they'd burn him as they did it. The Nundus so far had not yet begun giving chase. They seemed to be waiting on something.

He took a left, a right, and a left, having lost all sense of direction, even as pathways collapsed in on him. As he took a sharp left, he saw, a pair of stone lions. He sent banishing curses at them, to little effect. In desperation, he jumped, and sent a demolition curse at the ground, then shielded his feet from the impact. The blast sent him over the lions, and he continued in his escape.

 _The Hydra! I can't kill them, maybe I can bury them!_ Bill began throwing demolition spells at the walls. And listened as the ceiling collapsed behind him, feeling the cloud of dust between his legs at the collapse of the structure. Feeling safe for a moment, Bill paused to catch his breath.

Rumble.

 _Rumble._

Thinking the rumbling behind him was the snakes, struggling beneath the collapsed ceiling, Bill turned around to look.

Boulder. Big, bloody Boulder. Why is it rolling.

"Balls."

Bill Weasley ran like a madman. The screams of terror which would have come from him, were only stymied by his need for oxygen.

Nundus.

In front of him were the nundus which had not deigned to give chase earlier. A green miasma surrounded them as they waited for their prey to come to them. The walls glinted menacingly as Bill faced his doom.

And then Bill saw a door, a passageway to the left. Ducking in the doorway, Bill watched as the boulder rolled past leaving him safe for the moment. Gasping for air, Bill took in his surroundings.

"Harry?"

A gaunt man in muggle garb stood in the antechamber. He was starting at a statue, a statue ten feet tall of someone who looked remarkably like

"Bill, why is there a statue of you in an ancient pyramid?"

"What? Harry, that's not the point? What are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous? There's Nundus and stautes and a boulder straight out of a movie!" Bill leaned against the wall, the agony of exertion and fear overtook him as he looked at the younger man in front of him. Slayer of Voldemort he might be, but what the bloody hell was he doing in a tomb that Bill hadn't so much as begun the curse-breaking on?

As if on cue, a massive, lion-like head poked it's way into the antechamber.

"Harry, please tell me you can beat that thing." The Nundu growled, and licked it's lips with the slow assurance of a dinner already provided.

"What?! I can't beat that thing! It's a bloody Nundu!"

The two men ran.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I don't know. One minute I was snogging this delicious brunette, and the next minute I find myself in a bloody tomb!"

"Wait, brunette?"

"Erm, redhead, I mean red-we don't have time for this!" Harry and Bill alternated sending curses behind them and glares at one another.

The redhead among the two conjured up a wall where there had been none, out of sheer desperation.

They paused, gasping and wiping the sweat from their eyes, as they heard the scratching of claws against stone behind the wall.

"We'll have a discussion about this later." Bill said, in the most threatening voice he could muster. He looked on with satisfaction as Harry gulped.

"How strong is that wall?"

"It should buy us a couple minutes," Bill replied. Harry conjured up a second wall of steel in response.

"So, how do we get out of here?"

Bill shrugged. "Best start walking."


End file.
